


Coming Back For You

by theskullofhorror666



Series: Just Like Animals [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Apocalypse, Bisexual Female Character, F/M, Prequel, Series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:16:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26422513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theskullofhorror666/pseuds/theskullofhorror666
Summary: In this prequel to Just Like Animals, Gareth and Sadie must find their footing when the world as they know it goes to shit. When an old friend of Sadie’s makes contact with her to tell her about an alleged safe place in her hometown of Atlanta, they work with what little they have left in the way of travel to meet up with her to see for themselves.
Relationships: Gareth/Original Character(s)
Series: Just Like Animals [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1920568





	1. Contact

**Sadie’s POV**

I sat alone in the master bathroom, alone, staring at a little God forsaken test stick, waiting…..waiting for what result? _Jesus, I don’t even fucking know._ If there was a plus sign, did I want there to be? If not, was that what I was subconsciously hoping for? Who could say? 

_I KNOW if it’s the latter, it’s for the best...given the state of the world right now. Sure, I do. But if it were the former…..could we make that work?_

Gareth’s voice, from just down the hall, shattered my train of thought and brought me back to reality  
“Sadie?!” He called.  
I flushed the toilet and shoved the little stick down the back of my pants before I answered.  
“Still in here, didn’t fall in!” I chuckled.  
His footsteps grew closer until he reached the door, cracking the bedroom door open just as I was coming out of the bathroom.  
“The bathroom does have a door, you know.” I teased. “You don’t have to sneak in, all ninja like you can’t just look.”  
“I know that.” He snickered, kissing me on the cheek. “Maybe I just wanted to surprise you.”  
“Gar, I don’t even think you believe that.” I laughed.  
“...Anyway…” He continued, very smoothly changing the subject. “Phones are still down, I can’t get a hold of anyone.”  
I shrugged. “I’m sorry, baby, I don’t wanna say I told you so, buut…”   
“I know…” He sighed. “I know….it’s only been a week though, I was sure that someone’s phone must still be up.”  
I took his hands into mine. “I’m sure, somewhere out there, somebody’s is.”   
“Sade, I don’t even think you believe that.” He teased, mocking my earlier remark.  
I shook my head. “Very funny, Gar.”  
“Hey, it was worth a shot. Right?”  
“Of course it was.” I smirked, kissing him. I looked back toward the bathroom, as if just realizing something. “Shit, I left something in the bathroom….I’ll meet you back downstairs?”  
He gestured, sarcastically toward the bathroom. “Iiiit’s about two feet away, have at it.”  
I smacked him playfully as he left, waiting another minute after he shut the door behind him to shuffle the pregnancy test stick out of my pocket.  
I sat down on the bed, as my eyes fell back down to the little stick and processed the result.  
A negative. _Thank God….I think._  
I shook the thought from my head. _Of course it’s good….I have to stop letting my senseless last little shred of faith blind me from fucking reality._  
I dumped the stick in the trash, gathered enough supplies to justify the amount of time I’d spent in here, and headed out to meet back up with Gareth down the stairs.

Gareth slung his backpack over his shoulder as I made my way back down the stairs.  
“Anything good?” He asked.  
I nodded. “First aid kit under the sink, additional meds in the cabinet, couple books, aaand…” I pulled out a couple of _Playboy_ magazines I’d found out of my messenger bag with a wink. “These bad boys under the bed.”  
“Very funny.”   
“Who said these were for you?” I smirked, tucking them back away in a zipper compartment. “Like to look too, you know.”  
He shook his head. “You say that like there’s more than one of us in this equation who…” He added air quotes. “...likes to look.”  
I shot a suggestive stare at him. “Aren’t there.”  
“One time…” He whined. “One time when I was a kid.”  
“Oh, quit your whining, you know I’m just screwing with you.” I snickered.  
“Yeah, yeah..” He muttered under his breath, trying not to smile. “Anyway, ready to go?”  
“Yeah, just let me-” I started to say as I was cut off by a familiar tone coming from my bag.  
Gareth and I just stared at each other in shock for a solid minute, trying to figure out how to respond.  
“You hear that too, right?” I asked.  
“Yeah, yeah, I think it’s coming from your bag.”  
I nodded, tossing my bag to the floor and rummaging through it to find the source of the sound.  
“....It’s my phone..” I realized out loud. “You said all the phones were down..”  
“They are, or most of them! Why do you-”  
“SHH!” I interrupted, practically slapping the phone to my ear. “Hello?” It was far from the best reception, but it would do, for however long it lasted.   
“Sadie?” The voice on the other end asked.  
“Depends who wants to know.”  
“Sadie, it’s me…” She was hard to make out, but it sounded like she’d said Theresa, an old friend of mine I hadn’t heard from in a while.  
“T?”  
“Yeah, listen..” The rest of the call was pretty choppy, but what I got from it was there was this place, a camp or something, with food and supplies, that was safe from the dead ones. If we could meet up with her, we could see for ourselves. I tried to ask if she was still at the same address, but the call disconnected.  
“...Why do you still have a phone if…” Gareth tried to finish his earlier question.  
“Not important!” I interrupted. “Look, don’t ask me how, but that was...well, you remember my friend Theresa?”  
“...Vaaaguely.”  
I nodded. “Well that was her, she’s presumably still living in Georgia and can take us to this camp or whatever she heard about. Supposedly it’s safe and has supplies and shit.”  
“Can we go back to the how part of this phone call?”   
“No.” I sighed. “Look, I don’t know how true this is, but we have to at least say we tried, I mean..she has no one else.”  
“...And I’m all for that, but Sade, we don’t even have a car anymore. How are we supposed to get there?  
“Even if we walk, it’ll only take us a week, give or take some days factoring in rest stops to eat, drink and sleep.”  
“Shooould I be concerned with how readily you just had that information available?” He chuckled.  
“Well, you remember what my dad used to do to me.”  
He just nodded quietly.  
“Well, back in high school I mapped out exactly how I could get there and how long it would take to get there so I could stay with her when I was thinking I was gonna run away and never look back.”  
“What changed your mind?” I asked.  
I let a smile creep across my face. “I got hungry...and I needed a bottle opener.  
You could tell from his face that he was connecting the dots already.  
“....Aaand I just thought this really cute boy might have what I needed, so I broke into his house first…..decided maybe there was something worth staying for.  
Gareth grinned at that. :Well, I’m glad you did.” He sighed “Well, I suppose in that case we’d better head out. “It’s gonna be dark soon.”  
“Right behind ya.” I agreed, closing up my bag again before we took off.


	2. Alex's Friend

**Gareth's POV**

Before _seriously_ setting out on the journey ahead of us we had some houses to hit up, mostly for food and other necessary supplies, and check in on my brother and my mom and see if we could get them to come along if there was any shred of a chance that this supposed sanctuary that Sadie had heard about was legit.  
I have my doubts, but if Sadie has to make the trip anyway, for Theresa’s sake, then why not? Worst case scenery, we find out it’s bullshit or just not there anymore and the five of us just seek shelter elsewhere.  
I sighed. _God, I hope she’s right._

First stop was my brother, Alex’s, house which was just down the street from where we were.  
I knocked at the door and called out to him, so that he knew it was us.  
“Alex!! It’s Gareth and Sadie!” …..No response. I gave it a few minutes before I knocked again, louder this time. “ALEX!! It’s your brother, come on!”  
Sadie got her gun ready as I tried the door….which was unlocked for whatever reason. “Probably not a great idea to leave that unlocked, man!” I shouted up the stairs when we got in the house.   
I waited at the bottom of the stairs, in case he eventually answered, while Sadie went ahead to check the rest of the downstairs.  
“Hey, Gar! I don’t think he’s here!” She called from the kitchen.  
“”What makes you say that?” I asked, curiously.  
She came back into the living room, holding a small piece of paper that had been torn off of something. “This note saying he’s not.” She kind of snickered, as if it should’ve been obvious  
I read it to myself as she handed it to me. 

_Gone out for more supplies,  
Be back soon.  
-Alex_

I looked back up at Sadie. “This note isn’t even old, who’s it even for, unless you managed to get a hold of him while that phone was still working and told him we were coming.”  
She looked back at me with the most Really, Gareth? Look on her face. “When would I have done that, Gar? You’ve been with me both times I tried that phone after Theresa’s call.”  
“It was just a thought.” I shrugged.  
We raised our guns up when we heard the back door being opened. Sadie went ahead to peer through the kitchen doorway.  
Before either of us could take another step, Alex walked in and put his hands up in surrender when he saw us.  
“Alright, alright. I surrender!” He chuckled as Sadie and I lowered our guns. “I ahh see you found my note.”  
“Sadie found it. How’d you know we’d be here today?”  
“Iiii didn’t.” He explained. “...left it for someone else.”  
“Oh yeah? Who?” Sadie interjected.  
“Girl who’s been staying with me a couple days.”  
I just raised my eyebrows, taken aback by that, but Sadie laughed at the thought. “Yeah, right! Who’s it really for?”  
Alex rolled his eyes. “Alright, stick around, if you don’t believe me. We split up to check out other houses in the area, cover more ground and whatnot.”  
“Riiight.” Sadie chuckled. “I’ll believe it when I see it…..Anyway, not why we’re here.”  
“Just came by to check on you and see if you wanna tag along with us to check out this supposed safe place Sadie heard about.”  
Sadie nodded. “Old friend of mine up in Georgia managed to get ahold of us, said there’s some kind of campsite up there...or so she’d heard.”  
Alex nodded. “This the same one I met like once or twice?”  
“Yeah, Theresa.” Sadie confirmed.  
Alex took the note back from Sadie. “Well, as soon as my friend gets back, we can talk about it.”  
“If she comes back.” Sadie coughed under her breath.  
Alex shook his head. “Whatever, man.”

I was upstairs, grabbing the first aid kit out of the bathroom when I heard a noise that seemed to be coming from one of the bedrooms. I raised my gun and cautiously made my way toward the source of the noise.  
Upon reaching it, I cracked the door open about halfway, to find what now sounded like someone trying to get in the window. I aimed my gun toward it, inadvertently nearly giving the girl who came through it a heart attack.  
“Gahh!!” She raised a knife up in self defense. “How’d you get in?”  
“...I think the better question is, why’re you coming in through the window.”   
“I asked first.” She insisted, shutting the window behind her.  
“Front door. My brother left it unlocked again.” I shook my head in disappointment.  
“Alex?”  
“Yeah. Friend of his, I take it.”  
“Yeah, I’ve been staying with him a while.” She resecured her knife onto her belt as she reached out to shake my hand. “Tyra.”  
“Gareth. You gonna answer my question now?”  
She chuckled. “I saw the window open, I thought Alex was up here.  
I glanced toward the window, as if expecting it to still be open. “Guess he left that open too.”  
“Guess so.” She nodded. “He get back yet?”  
“Yeah, he and my wife are downstairs.”  
She grabbed what seemed to be a go bag out from under the bed before heading out ahead of me. “Let’s go then.”

“...knock it off already..” I heard Alex say from the other room as we were coming down the stairs, followed by Sadie’s voice.

“...All I’m saying is, I’ll believe it when I see it.” She laughed as we entered the kitchen.  
“Lay off him.” I snickered. “He may actually be right for once.”  
“Thank you!” He exclaimed, clearly exasperated, shaking his head. “Hey, Tyra. I didn’t hear you come in.”  
“Came in through the window.” She explained, hopping up on the counter and reaching for something in one of the cupboards.  
“...So he _is_.” Sadie smirked, referring to my previous remark as she took a once over of Tyra. “She’s cute.”  
“Thank you?” Tyra chuckled.   
“Ahh! Where is my head today.” She exclaimed, grabbing some chips out of the pantry. “I’m Sadie.” She pointed at me with a smirk. “...that one’s girl.”  
“Good to meet you.” Tyra chuckled.   
“Likewise.” She walked over and kissed me on the cheek as she passed by. I gotta go take a piss, then we’ll talk about where we go from here.”  
“You do that.” I chuckled.   
Alex just shook his head and peered down the hall to make sure she was out of earshot before looking back to Tyra. “Fun, isn’t she?”  
Tyra laughed. “She seems cool.”  
“Right…” He sighed. “...So, the window, huh?”  
“It was open, I thought you were up there.” She shrugged.  
“And while we’re on the subject, bro…” I added, patting him on the shoulder.  
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. The door. I know.”  
“And the window.” I pointed out.  
“...and the window.”


	3. Where To Now?

**Sadie’s POV**

“Miss me?” I announced with a smirk when I returned to the kitchen.  
“So bad. I’m surprised we’re all still alive.” Alex remarked, rolling his eyes.  
“Awww, jealous much?” I snickered, hopping back up on the counter and snagging some chips from a nearby shelf.  
“Oohh, Good shit. Good shit.”  
“Thank yo- ?”  
I cut him off before he could finish his response. “Anyway, the plan…”  
I pretended to ignore Alex while he just rolled his eyes at me.  
“So, you remember my friend Theresa? I think you met her like once or twice.”  
He considered this for a moment. “.......Vaguely….and I think it was once.”  
“Probably was. Anyway, she lives in Georgia, and I don’t know how, but she managed to get enough cell service to call me and tell me about some kind of safe space up there, with like supplies and shit…”  
“Okaaay…”  
“Well, we kinda don’t have a car anymore…” I explained.  
“What does _kinda don’t have a car_ mean.” He sighed.  
“Thaaat we don’t.” I pointed to Gareth. “Mainly because this one was supposed to take it in before shit hit the fan.”  
“I said I was sorry.” Gareth sighed.  
“Dually noted, regardless, it’s where we are.”  
“Fine.”  
I turned back to Alex. “So, unless one of you has a car, we gotta hit the road on foot til we find someone who does….and this one said you should come with us.”  
“Sadie…” Gareth sighed.  
I rolled my eyes. “FIne.. _we_ thought you should come.”  
“Enticing.” Alex remarked.  
Gareth just chuckled at him.  
“Thank you, I try.” I retorted. “I so need your approval.”  
Alex rolled his eyes.  
“Anyway..” I continued. “If you come you come, if you don’t, that’s your prerogative. We really just need a car.”  
Gareth shook his head. “ _I_ would like you to come, bro...both of you.”  
“Oh no!” I corrected, pointing to Tyra. “ _She’s_ more than welcome. It’s him that’s optional.” I smirked, shooting her a wink.  
“ _Both_ of them are coming.” Gareth sighed, redirecting his attention back to them. “Come on, man, please?”   
Alex looked to Tyra. “What do you think?”  
Tyra shrugged. “I think it’s worth a shot.”  
“You don’t have to say that, we’re fine here for a while.”  
Tyra shook her head. “No, I wanna go. I’ve heard similar things, I think she may have something here.”  
“I knew I liked you.” I smirked. “So, one of you have a car or what?”  
“I do.” Tyra chuckled, holding up her car key. “She’s not great, but she runs.”  
“She’ll do.”  
“Yes! You’re a lifesaver, I call shotgun!” I announced, sliding down off the counter and grabbing my bag.  
“Wait, _why_ do you get to call shotgun?” Alex whined.  
“Did you think to call it?” I smirked.  
He shook his head, more in annoyance than in actual answer.  
“Heheehhhh! That’s what I thought.”  
Tyra just laughed and began leading us toward the front door. “Car’s out this way.”

“Wait, you don’t mean the jeep that was parked out here when we came in, do you?” I asked.  
She nodded as she opened the front door.. “That’d be her.”  
“Niiice!”  
“Thank you. You see, Al? Some people appreciate my baby!” She teased as she unlocked the doors.  
He just rolled his eyes and hopped in the backseat, next to Gareth.

“Oohh, permission to snoop through your tuneage?” I requested upon finding a CD holder in the glove compartment.  
“I think you already are, but go ahead.” Tyra laughed, starting the car up.  
“You don’t have to encourage her, you know.” Alex sighed from the back seat.  
“Bold of you to assume it makes a difference.” I snickered, thumbing through her music.   
I wasn’t paying attention, but he was probably rolling his eyes at me.  
“Kuuudoss.” I marveled. “You have some good taste in music.”  
“Thank you, I like to think so.”  
I thumbed through the holder some more til, til I settled on one that piqued my interest.  
“ _.” She noted when the disc loaded. “My kind of girl.”  
I high fived her and Gareth chuckled at Alex’s apparent dismay.  
“Aww, what's the matter, Alex?” I teased. “Afraid I’m gonna steal your little friend here?”  
“Shut up.” He sighed.  
“Make me.” I snickered, kicking my feet up on the dashboard.   
“Anyway…” Tyra chuckled. “Where to now?_


End file.
